Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem Unrated Edition

The Unrated Edition of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is an extended version of the 2007 film, first released on home video in 2008. As well as adding extra scenes and additional violence to the movie, it also rearranges some sequences within the film. The Unrated Edition extends the film's run time by around 8 minutes.

Overview

Several of the more major changes made in the Unrated Edition of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem attempt to fix goofs present in the theatrical cut, perhaps most obviously the appearance of the Predator ship seen at the beginning of the film, which in the original cut does not match the one seen leaving Antarctica at the end of Alien vs. Predator. Another noteworthy alteration concerns Wolf's knowledge of the Predalien — in the theatrical release, he learns that a Predalien is responsible for bringing down the crashed Predator vessel before he leaves Yautja Prime, but in the Unrated Edition he does not find this out until after he has arrived on Earth, thus helping to explain why he travels there alone and fairly lightly armed when a highly dangerous Predalien is one the loose, and why he is therefore forced to scavenge additional equipment from the downed ship.

Differences

Here follows a complete rundown of the differences between the theatrical release of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and the extended Unrated Edition.

The opening shot of the film that shows the Predator Scout Ship departing Earth has been altered in the Unrated Edition so that the vessel now matches the Mother Ship seen at the end of Alien vs. Predator.

In the theatrical version, the long zoom shot of Scar's body lying in state that ends with the Chestburster emerging is interrupted by several shots of other Predators carrying captive Facehuggers through the ship. The footage of the Predators has been removed in the Unrated Edition so that the zoom shot on Scar is a single, uninterrupted take.

Immediately after the Chestburster emerges from Scar, a shot of the Scout Ship orbiting Earth has been replaced with a new shot of the Mother Ship flying past Saturn. The smaller Scout Ship (as seen in the theatrical version) now undocks from the Mother Ship's port side and heads back towards Earth.

The shot of the Predalien shedding its skin is extended at the end in the Unrated Edition, affording a shadowy look at the creature's face. Following this, the footage of Predators carrying Facehuggers through the vessel that was removed from the Unrated Edition earlier is reinserted here.

When Wolf receives the distress signal from the crashed Scout Ship, the Unrated Edition does not show the on-board footage of the Predalien killing the crew that was recorded by Bull; Wolf only sees the exterior footage of the vessel going down.

Dallas and Morales talk.

After Dallas mentions to Sheriff Morales how they both used to get into trouble with the law when they were younger, Morales goes on to ask, "Do you regret what you did?" Dallas says no and asks if the Sheriff thought he would. Morales concludes, "I think three years is a long time," revealing Dallas has been in prison for three years for an unspecified crime.

After the Chestburster emerges from Sam's chest, an additional brief closeup of both, seen from over Sam's shoulder, has been added.

When the Predalien attacks the homeless woman in the sewers, the theatrical version shows a shot of the Predalien from behind as it attacks her. The Unrated Edition instead uses alternate footage of the woman's legs thrashing as she (presumably) has Bellybursters implanted into her.

As Wolf explores the crashed Scout Ship, a brief shot of him discovering Bull's body, seen through Wolf's thermal vision, is added.

Wolf about to don Bull's Bio-Mask.

When Wolf briefly mourns Bull's death, the theatrical version cuts to a closeup as he runs his fingers down the dead Predator's Bio-Mask. The Unrated Edition instead continues with the wide shot for this, after which we see Wolf remove his own mask before taking Bull's Bio-Mask from his body and putting it on. Through this mask he sees the recording of what happened aboard the ship, and the footage of the Predalien killing the Predator crew that was removed from the Unrated Edition earlier is shown now. Afterwards, Wolf places Bull's mask back on his corpse.

After Wolf removes the testing syringe from his kit, there is an extended shot of him taking hold of the device and moving over to the smashed Facehugger tube with it. Only the end of this shot, once Wolf is already crouched beside the smashed tube, is seen in the theatrical cut.

After Tim and Kelly put Molly to bed, the Unrated Edition shows a new scene where the two of them talk on the sofa downstairs. Kelly thanks Tim for being so good with their daughter while she has been away on tour, before suggesting she made a mistake enlisting in the military and going overseas. Tim assures her that she did nothing wrong, they just missed her.

After Dallas and Ricky recover the keys from the sewer, a new scene is added where Morales and his men are gearing up for the search for Buddy and Sam Benson in the woods. Morales is approached by Buddy's wife, Darcy, who voices her concerns for her missing husband and son. Morales tries to reassure her and tells her to go home, but she is joined by Nathan, Dale and several other civilians who all insist on helping with the search.

Buddy and Sam make the news.

The scene in the diner after Darcy is seen handing out missing persons flyers is extended. In the Unrated Edition, it begins with a closeup of a TV playing a news report on the disappearance of the Bensons. Dallas watches the report as he sits at his table, after which we see Kelly and Tim, who are also eating in the diner and call Molly over to join them. After Carrie has served Dallas his coffee, he and Kelly glance at each other across the room. It is implied from the look in Kelly's eyes that she was previously the victim of some wrongdoing on Dallas' part (although whether this might be the reason Dallas was sent to prison is not revealed).

In the theatrical cut, the scene where Jesse talks to Ricky in his pickup and invites him swimming occurs after Morales talks with Dr. Lennon in the morgue. In the Unrated Edition it is moved later, taking place immediately after Wolf destroys the bodies of the homeless people in the sewer. As a result, Wolf searching the sewers is split into two separate scenes, whereas it is a single uninterrupted sequence in the theatrical release.

After Morales informs Dallas of Ray's fate in the bar, Dallas additionally asks if he has told Darcy yet. Morales solemnly shakes his head.

When Wolf find's Nathan's body in the power plant, a closeup of his bloody face and head wound is removed.

After Wolf jumps away from Nathan's corpse, the Unrated Edition shows Karl, another of the workers at the station, calling for Nathan over the radio. Getting no response, he walks upstairs and finds Nathan's corpse. He glances up and sees Wolf, who looks back at him and flashes his eyes, causing Karl to run away. Following this, we see the closeup of Nathan's face that was removed earlier.

When the Warrior kills Mark in the swimming pool, the creature Headbites him instead of simply pulling him under the water, and the water turns red with blood.

A brief new scene after Ricky and the others escape the swimming pool shows Morales and Dallas hearing about the explosion at the power plant over the radio in Morales' patrol car. Morales turns on the vehicle's sirens and Dallas remarks, "Well this day just keeps getting better."

After discovering the remains in the empty pool, Dallas and Morales continue to search the room, with Morales finding blood on the floor.

Carrie's offspring.

The scene where Darcy finds Carrie's body is edited differently. After she enters the diner, a shot of Darcy from behind as she approaches the swing doors into the kitchen has been replaced with a closeup of Carrie's dead face as the Bellybursters erupt from her stomach (off-screen). As Darcy enters the kitchen, we hear one of the Bellybursters scuttling away, and then there is an alternate shot of Carrie's corpse in which several more of the creatures can be seen moving around in her ruptured stomach. After Darcy turns around and runs, there is an additional closeup of the Bellybursters writhing around in Carrie's stomach, before we see a longer take of Darcy fleeing back through the restaurant. This scene explains why Darcy is so hysterical when she talks to Morales later, because she actually sees the creatures responsible for Carrie's gory death.

Wolf spots Karl threatening Molly.

Immediately after the above change, a fairly long new scene is intercut with Wolf healing his wounds in the tree. First, we see Kelly and Molly running across a field and into a graveyard. The film then cuts to the panning shot following Wolf's flouresant blood trail up the tree to the branch on which he is perched; while this footage is the same as in the theatrical cut, in the Unrated Edition an air raid siren (signalling the evacuation Morales has ordered) can be heard in the background. After Wolf opens his Medicomp, we cut back to the graveyard, where Kelly and Molly run into Karl from the earlier power plant scene, who is hiding among the gravestones and is now armed with a revolver. He calls them over and nervously asks if they have seen the creatures that are stalking the town. After cutting to Wolf stapling his wound closed, the sequence returns to the graveyard, where Karl, Kelly and Molly react to Wolf's roar of pain. Molly keeps tearfully asking her mother why she left her father at the house, and Karl becomes increasingly angry that the young girl's wimpering will give away their position. Kelly tries to calm him down but he begins to threaten them; Wolf overhears and, seeing that Karl is armed, takes aim and blows his head off with his Plasmacasters. Kelly moves to pick up the dead man's revolver, but when she sees Wolf's laser pointer hovering over the gun she leaves it and flees with Molly. There is then a shot of Wolf's thermal vision as he watches them go (replacing the thermal shot of a line of traffic that is seen in the theatrical release), after which Wolf stands up as in the original cut. During this added sequence, a gravestone marked "Hawkins" is seen, an homage to Rick Hawkins from Predator.

When the National Guard are ambushed, a shot of blood splattering a window when the soldier peering into the blood-stained car is killed has been removed — instead, the shot of the soldier turning around and noticing the Xenomorph behind him is extended to show how he receives a Headbite, the Xenomorph's inner jaw punching clean through his head and breaking the glass behind him. A little later, the removed shot of blood splattering is used when another soldier is grabbed and killed.

In the Unrated Edition, the final shot of Wood has been digitally altered to show him receiving a headbite.

After Morales realises Earl and Scotty are stoned, a quick added shot shows Dallas telling them to "grab some rifles".

The shot of the Predalien killing Helen is fractionally extended to show the creature snapping her neck before it Headbites her.

When the main characters are moving through the hospital's morgue, the scene is very briefly extended, with a quick additional shot of them looking around.

When Jesse is pinned to the wall by Wolf's Shuriken, the Unrated Edition shows how the acid blood coating the weapon after it just sliced through a Xenomorph causes her torso to melt in half, her legs and intestines falling to the floor.

After Dallas tells the others to "get to the chopper", there is additional footage of Kelly shooting Aliens with her M4A1 as she guides Molly and Ricky there. A Xenomorph tries to sneak up on them but Dallas sees it and blasts it the the Plasma Pistol, before yelling at the others to go.

Trivia

Copies of the Unrated Edition DVD sold at Best Buy outlets in the United States also included the exclusive comic Aliens vs. Predator: Deadspace, which to date has never been made available anywhere else.

A fault with seamless branching meant that initial copies of the Unrated Edition on Blu-ray were actually missing two changes — namely the alternate footage used when the Predalien attacks the homeless woman in the sewers, and when Jesse's body melts in half in the hospital. In both instances, the Blu-ray actually showed the theatrical footage at these points. While the issue was not acknowledged by 20th Century Fox, it was quietly corrected and subsequent copies of the Blu-ray show the full Unrated Edition.